Video of Michael Bayley’s Q&A aboard World Cruise

[dragontrainer]

I have not followed the world cruise thread closely so feel free to send me there is this was discussed: was there a "vibe" concern/issue with crew coming in and out of contracts?  

 

The last few posts focus on passenger changes, did that end up being the big driver for vibe changes?  I could imagine having the same waiters, stewards and entertainment staff for 3/6 months and having new people come in could be a change over time as well.  I doubt, even for a 6-month cruise they would try to align all the crew contracts (but I could be wrong about that) so this would come up on a future world cruise.

[sgmn]

We did one mini sector, 16 nights, Barcelona to Southampton.  Our cruise was full so lots of single sector folk on board.  I did feel the vibe was different, though not necessarily in a bad way. It was quieter. Schooner Bar was quiet, sometimes only a handful of people there. MDR was about a third to half full, Viking Crown lounge seemed to have regulars, but people were friendly enough. There were lots of long ports days.

We enjoyed it but I think 3 to 4 weeks would be my maximum. 

The RC singers were IMO amazing and I think doing the whole WC.  They did their own individual shows as well as  ensemble shows.  The orchestra as always was amazing 

Edited September 9 by sgmn

[island lady]

19 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Basically the same reasons for me.  Also I wouldn't want to be away from family (including pets) for that long.

 

 

We never cruised more than 2 weeks at a time when we had the fur babies...and even that was too long to be gone from them, even with the world's best cat sitter.  

 

The demon cancer took them from us, so we are sans pets now, but miss them still.  

[island lady]

18 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

 

Wondering when did M Bayley get on the ship? 
 

Wonder how many will go on the reunion cruise?

 

 

 

23 Corporates big wigs boarded the ship in Bermuda...including Michael.  

 

We will not be on the reunion cruise.  

[Airbear232]

On 9/9/2024 at 8:16 AM, island lady said:

 

Missing my home (comfy in our cabin...but not the same)

the Quiet (always too noisy on a ship)

Food (cruise ship food, AKA nursing home mass feeding style with too much salt/sauces)

Cooking (yeah, call me crazy, but I love to cook and miss it)

Walmart near by (easy access to sundries/toiletries).  

Laundry at home (the "boil and fry" bags...just not the same)

I’m sure though it must have been a great experience.  You mention the food, was it different from any other Royal cruise?  I hope that if they do it again in the future my DW and I will be on it. 

[Oceansaway17]

11 hours ago, island lady said:

 

23 Corporates big wigs boarded the ship in Bermuda...including Michael.  

 

We will not be on the reunion cruise.  

Thanks for your reply and thanks for the beginning part of this thread.

I think RCI will get quite a lot of interesting comments. 

wow 23 corporate folks. Only thing missing is Rover from Icon.

see they needed a chief dog on the WC.

 

I see the ship heading to Tampa empty of passengers. For a while Tampa is going to have Radiance and Serenade.

 

Well keep on cruising. I am doing B2B with Disney Magic and Celebrity Beyond in 4 weeks. Looking forward to the Sun Princess in Nov B2B with Freedom OTS.

 

toodles and hoping a few end of cruise comments from some of folks on WC.

[Oceansaway17]

11 hours ago, island lady said:

 

23 Corporates big wigs boarded the ship in Bermuda...including Michael.  

 

We will not be on the reunion cruise.  

Oops I meant the other thread you created. Thanks for starting and hope you do a final wrap and Laura as well

[ThirdGenCruiser]

On 9/10/2024 at 12:07 AM, lovesthebeach2 said:

Interesting, so the reason I wondered was that we got on in Ravenna and that segment was so special, we could feel the comfortableness of the guests with each other and the crew. I cruise enough to feel the difference. I can pick up the slightest changes in energy.

 

On the second segment the entire vibe of the cruise changed. I said to my husband as the guests came onboard that the VIBE changed and I didn’t like it at all!  A couple that we met a few days before the second segment began said the same thing. The vibe was off. 
So possibly that would be a reason for the question.

 

Did he answer?

 

I was on from Cape Town to Barcelona, but to be honest I think I was too exhausted from the back-to-back-to-back port days to notice the vibe change after Rome 😴. But the ship was certainly much more busy after Ravenna compared to the African segment before.

 

The Rome to Barcelona 9-night sailing was among the shortest of the 17. Perhaps this short length didn't help? I mean think about the difference between a regular 3 vs 7 night cruise. I do wonder what the ambience would have been like for the other 9-nighter between Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

 

Personally, I'd like the next world cruise to still allow booking a portion of the full itinerary. Could the solution be to have longer (but fewer) sailings overall?

 

[lovesthebeach2]

19 minutes ago, ThirdGenCruiser said:

 

I was on from Cape Town to Barcelona, but to be honest I think I was too exhausted from the back-to-back-to-back port days to notice the vibe change after Rome 😴. But the ship was certainly much more busy after Ravenna compared to the African segment before.

 

The Rome to Barcelona 9-night sailing was among the shortest of the 17. Perhaps this short length didn't help? I mean think about the difference between a regular 3 vs 7 night cruise. I do wonder what the ambience would have been like for the other 9-nighter between Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

 

Personally, I'd like the next world cruise to still allow booking a portion of the full itinerary. Could the solution be to have longer (but fewer) sailings overall?

 

The difference on the Rome sailing was there were many more guests and children. The ship was much more crowded, and not that I don’t like kids, but the feeling after that boarding was not comfortable and relaxed and quiet as it had been.  It was way more noisy, more like some 7 might cruises we see in Florida. Kids running around some unsupervised.

We’re not fans of the amusement park cruises that seem to now be flooding the market on Royal now, so we would like to see a smaller ship with less people overall.  
It looks like we’ll need to cruise a more luxury line with less guests overall, or wait for Discovery class (which looks too far away) before we would join a World Cruise in its entirety.
 

[island lady]

On 9/10/2024 at 3:51 PM, Airbear232 said:

I’m sure though it must have been a great experience.  You mention the food, was it different from any other Royal cruise?  I hope that if they do it again in the future my DW and I will be on it. 

 

No...I would guess pretty much the same mass feeding type food as any other cruise length...but it just gets tiring when it last so long.  

 

We definitely won't do another WC....unless it is just six weeks long.  That is going to become our new "limit" on one cruise.  

 

I love the itineraries...but six weeks at a time would be better for us....IMHO>  

[island lady]

On 9/10/2024 at 5:41 PM, Oceansaway17 said:

 

I see the ship heading to Tampa empty of passengers. For a while Tampa is going to have Radiance and Serenade.

 

Well keep on cruising. I am doing B2B with Disney Magic and Celebrity Beyond in 4 weeks. Looking forward to the Sun Princess in Nov B2B with Freedom OTS.

 

Add Enchantment to Tampa as well.  We are on for B2B (9/5) next month.  That is the one where we finally get to return to Falmouth and Grand Cayman.  We are skipping Labadee...yaaahhh!!! 😉 

The following month we are doing Celeb Constellation out of  Tampa...looking forward to the slide up the Mississippi river.  

[island lady]

On 9/10/2024 at 5:45 PM, Oceansaway17 said:

Oops I meant the other thread you created. Thanks for starting and hope you do a final wrap and Laura as well

 

Thanks...I enjoyed doing the 1st quarter thread....but bowed out of the last quarter posting.  

[Oceansaway17]

51 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Thanks...I enjoyed doing the 1st quarter thread....but bowed out of the last quarter posting.  

oh I understand and can read between the lines.

 

ya know those WC on HAL seem nice and are shorter.  

[cruiselvr04]

We’d love to do a world cruise with Royal but 9 months is much too long.  We’ve done 8 weeks and just returned from 5 weeks. We’d try 3-4 months but wouldn’t even consider longer. We have a home and a fur baby and grandkids. Plus the price per day was pretty high I suppose because of all the “special” experiences they got. I’d take less special and less cost. If they kept the length down I’m guessing more would be interested.  
 

We love cruising but even those who love it get worn out after a while. Most sea days we spend half the day in our room to relax in the quiet. If you do 7 days it can be go go go but longer and you need some downtime.  I can’t imagine 9 months. 

[Airbear232]

4 hours ago, island lady said:

 

No...I would guess pretty much the same mass feeding type food as any other cruise length...but it just gets tiring when it last so long.  

 

We definitely won't do another WC....unless it is just six weeks long.  That is going to become our new "limit" on one cruise.  

 

I love the itineraries...but six weeks at a time would be better for us....IMHO>  

I guess it’s one of those you don’t know until you try.  So, I’m not really in a position to doubt.  This was also much longer than most WCs and nearly 2/3 of a year is a long, long time.  Of all the places you visited, which were your favourites?

[sgmn]

12 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

 

ya know those WC on HAL seem nice and are shorter.  

The problem with shorter WC is that by necessity to circumnavigate the globe in a shorter time there has to be lots of sea days.  The uniqueness of RC WC was it went to so many interesting ports.  

 

There's lots of info on the world cruise forums on CC.

 

Personally I think segments so we can choose areas of the world that most interest is the way to go.  No way could I spend more than a few weeks away.

So I guess I'm not really a world cruiser person but appreciate unusual itineraries over big ships that go to the same ports week after week, year after year ...

[island lady]

15 hours ago, Airbear232 said:

I guess it’s one of those you don’t know until you try.  So, I’m not really in a position to doubt.  This was also much longer than most WCs and nearly 2/3 of a year is a long, long time.  Of all the places you visited, which were your favourites?

 

The first quarter...all the way.   Loved going to Antarctica .....and Ushuaia Argentina was my favorite port.  Am planning on a return trip to visit down there...but will be on a smaller ship that can actually use RIBs to land on the ice in Antarctica.  That will be Viking or possibly Silverseas.  

[Airbear232]

6 hours ago, island lady said:

 

The first quarter...all the way.   Loved going to Antarctica .....and Ushuaia Argentina was my favorite port.  Am planning on a return trip to visit down there...but will be on a smaller ship that can actually use RIBs to land on the ice in Antarctica.  That will be Viking or possibly Silverseas.  

Antarctica and Alaska are on our bucket list.  With climate change, much of this may disappear.

[island lady]

16 hours ago, Airbear232 said:

Antarctica and Alaska are on our bucket list.  With climate change, much of this may disappear.

 

Indeed .....has been disappearing for some time now.   Lots of glaciers receding.   One near Seward Alaska is a dramatic example.  

 

Have been to Alaska many times, and in fact going again next May-June.   But this last trip to Antarctica was our first.  Beautiful.  🥰

[PhillyFan33579]

On 9/9/2024 at 3:48 PM, sgmn said:

We enjoyed it but I think 3 to 4 weeks would be my maximum. 

I feel similar except 2 to 3 weeks would be my maximum. While I really enjoy cruising, I also enjoy being at home spending time with friends and family and playing tennis and/or pickleball literally every day, weather permitting. 

[Airbear232]

On 9/14/2024 at 9:55 AM, island lady said:

 

Indeed .....has been disappearing for some time now.   Lots of glaciers receding.   One near Seward Alaska is a dramatic example.  

 

Have been to Alaska many times, and in fact going again next May-June.   But this last trip to Antarctica was our first.  Beautiful.  🥰

I hope one day we’ll see Antarctica, thank you for the feedback!